Peter STAPLE^[1]

Abt 1640 - Abt 1719  (~ 79 years)

• Name	Peter STAPLE
  Born	Abt 1640	Barham, Suffolk, England
  Gender	Male
  Also Known As	STAPLES
  Migration	Bef 1671
  Occupation	Carpenter, yeoman
  Will Notes	Maine Will Abstracts, 1640-1760 Source Page: Probate Office, 3, 14. Name: Peter Staple Will Text: In the Name of God Amen The Sixth day of June in the Year of our Lord one Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighteen I Peter Staple of Kittery in the Co of Yorke in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New-England Yeoman being aged and weak in Body but of perfect mind and Memory thanks be given unto God Therefore Calling unto mind the Mortality of my Body do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament that is to Say Principally and first of all I give & Recommend my Soul into the hands of god that gave it. And for my Body I commend it to the Earth to be Buried in a Christian like and Decent manner at the discretion of my Executors hereafter named, And as Touching Such worldly Estate wherewith it hath Pleased God to bless Maine in this life I give devise and dispose of the Same in the following manner and form. Impr I give and bequeath to Elizabeth my dearly beloved wife her dwelling in and Improvement of my dwelling house during her Natural life and also all my household Stuff and other my moveable goods together with the one Third part of the Produce or Income of that my farm and Stock of Cattle which I have heretofore given and alienated to my Son Peter Staple for her Comfortable Support during her Natural life and if the above said Income Shall not be Sufficient to maintain her She hath by these Presents Liberty to dispose of and Sell So much of my household goods or other moveables as Shall be Sufficient to Support her and what Household Goods & other Moveables Effects Shall remain at her Decease not disposed of by her for the aforesaid use I give the Same to my two Sons John & James Staples to be Equally Divided betwene them or those that Shall legally represent them. Item I do by these presents Confirm unto my Sons Peter Staple John Staple & James Staple their Heirs and Assignes forever the Lands which I have heretofore given them I do also give unto my Said Sons either Eighteen pounds in money or Six heat cattle between three and four years of age to be equally divided between them or those that Shall Lawfully represent them upon Condition of their defraying my funeral Charges and Obliging of themselves decently to bury my above said wife Elizabeth their Mother after her decease. The above said money or Cattle to be paid by my Said Son Peter to my other Sons John and James Staples their proportion.Item I do hereby Constitute make & ordain my three well beloved Sons Peter John & James Staples my Executors of this my Last Will and Testament And I do hereby utterly disallow revoke & dissanul all and Every other former Testaments Wills and Executors by Maine in any ways before named And Willed Ratifying and Confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament In witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand & Seal the day and Year above written Signed Sealed Published Pronounced & Declared by the Said Peter Staple as his last Will and Testament In the Presents of us the Subscribers. John Newmarch Paul Wentworth Nicolas Weeks Peter Staple (Seal) his mark Probated 7 April 1719. Inventory returned, 3 April 1719, at œ18:16:6, by John Dennit, and Joshua Remick, appraisers. —— According to his Inventory, Peter STAPLE was a Husbandman. His farm produce and stock of cattle produced income. The “Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire”, p656, lists Peter as a Highway Surveyor 1673; Constable for lower Kittery 1676, Grand Jury 1686, 1689-90, 1699; The NE Historical & Genealogical Register; pub. year 1928; Vol. 82; p72-74: Records of the First Church of Berwick, Maine; Starting on p72, are - The Records of the Church of Christ at Barwick, organized December 21, 1701. P74 lists Peter Staple as one of the seventeen Foundation Brethren, however the Staple name does not appear in any other place in the records. Since this record is in 1701, this is either Peter Sr. or Peter Jr as Capt Peter would have been about one year old. Peter turned over the Staple homestead to his son Peter Jr in 1694.
  Will Written	6 Jun 1718	Kittery, York, Maine
  	Probated 7 April 1719
  Immigrant?	Y
  Confirmed Ancestor?	Y
  Parents Unproven	Y
  Historical Notes	“Saco Valley Settlements and Families", by G.T. Ridlon, Sr., Page 1159, pub. in 1895, states; Peter, Thomas and another brother arrived at Kittery, Maine in 1671. "A Genealogical History of New Hampshire", by Sterns, Vol 2, pub. in 1908, states; In 1640 three brothers, Peter, Thomas and another (name unknown) arrived in Kittery, Maine. "Old Elliot", by J.L.M. Willis, Book Two, Vol VI, p. 37. as written by the Rev Charles J. Staples, (I think in 1901/02, The most consistent and authentic tradition connects the (Peter Staples) family with a previous settlement to the eastward (of Eliot, Maine), possibly the abandoned outpost at Pemaquid, founded in 1625, or earlier. There were brothers, it is said, who settled in Massachusetts and Virginia. "The Boston Sunday Post", August 16, 1942, in an article by Andrew F. Donnel on the Staples coat-of-arms states that Peter was granted land at Kittery, Maine in 1671, Thomas was in Fairfield, Conn. in 1645. —— Regarding your information about Peter Staple b abt 1640 at the Piscataqua between say 1669 & 1671. Peter's wife [no marriage certificate has been found] Elizabeth (Beadle) Edwards was listed as a widow in Dec of 1669 and the first recorded information on Peter Staple is a land grant dated in 1671.) Peter's surname is recorded on the probate documents as Staple (no 's" at the end). In my probate docs for his son Peter Jr, lists his surname as Staple. The s/o Peter Jr, Capt Peter Staple, according to a signed letter to his commanding officer, signed his name Staple. Capt Peters' second born son Nathaniel moved his family to what is now Cape Elizabeth, Maine. In a signed letter as a selectman at Cape Elizabeth Nathaniel signed his name as Staple. However the vital records written by the town clerk Ebenezer Sawyer held at the South Portland Municipal Bld, record his family as Staples, with the 's' at the end. Nathanael's son born in Peter Staple born in Kittery moved to Cape Elizabeth with his family and received a grant of 100 acres at Raymondtown (Now Raymond, Casco, and South Casco) and from that point the surname Staples has been used.  [2]
  Died	Abt 1719	Kittery, York, Maine   [3, 4]
  Buried	Old Fields Cemetery, S Berwick, York, Maine   [5]
  	Unmarked
  Person ID	I2949	Main
  Last Modified	30 Nov 2023

  
  

  Father	Peter STAPLE,   b. Abt 1620, England ,   d. Abt 1672, Kittery, York, Maine  (Age ~ 52 years)
  Mother	Mary GIBBS,   b. Abt 1620,   d. ?
  Family ID	F1038	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Elizabeth BEADLE,   b. 1641, York, York, Maine ,   d. Abt 1736, Kittery, York, Maine  (Age 95 years)
  Married	7 Apr 1673	Kittery, York, Maine   [6, 7, 8, 9]
  Children	+ 1. Peter STAPLES,   b. Abt 1673, Kittery, York, Maine ,   d. 17 Dec 1721, Kittery, York, Maine  (Age ~ 48 years) + 2. John STAPLES,   b. Abt 1677, Kittery, York, Maine ,   d. Bef 16 Jul 1745, Kittery, York, Maine  (Age ~ 68 years) + 3. Deacon James STAPLES,   b. Abt 1678, S Eliot, York, Maine ,   d. 1725, York, York, Maine  (Age ~ 47 years)
  Last Modified	30 Aug 2017
  Family ID	F1005	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Event Map		Married - 7 Apr 1673 - Kittery, York, Maine Will Written - 6 Jun 1718 - Kittery, York, Maine Died - Abt 1719 - Kittery, York, Maine Buried - - Old Fields Cemetery, S Berwick, York, Maine  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Notes

  Peter, m abt 1669-1671 (“Old Elliot”, p37), wid. Elizabeth (BEEDLE or BEADLE) Edwards, (1641—abt 1736), 3 children, d/o Robert and Mary (BAILEY or BAYLY) BEEDLE of Kittery, Maine. Peter STAPLE, died early 1719, Kittery, now Eliot, Maine. His will is dated June 6, 1718, and probated April 7, 1719. “Maine Wills”, p 215-6, York Probate 3, 14 docket # 17865”. Peter's Adm., Will (He refers to himself as Yeoman (landowner) and made his mark "p") the will was witnessed by John Newmarch, Paul Wentworth and Nicholas Weeks. Peter’s Inventory refers to him as Husbandman. These records are at the York Co Courthouse, Alfred, Maine. His wife Elizabeth and three sons, Peter STAPLE, John STAPLE and James STAPLE are mentioned in his will. “Old Kittery”, p 752-758; “Genealogical Dictionary of Maine & New Hampshire”, p 656; “Old Eliot” Book Two, Vol. VI, p29 – 43. The lineage from Arthur B. Staples (jr) to Peter Staple of Kittery has been approved by the "Piscataqua Pioneers" (#1747). According to local historians Peter & his wife are probably buried in unmarked graves, as was the custom at the time, in the 'Old Burial Field'. —— From "Old Kittery And Her Families" by Stackpole: Peter Staple, as the name was for a long time written, had a grant of land in 1671, and he bought land of Thomas Turner on Long Reach 4 July 1674. He and wife Elizabeth deeded this to son Peter in 1694. March 9, 1679, there were "measured and laid out unto Peter Staple five acres of land by town grant to his wife in her widowhood bearing date in December 13, 1669." See York Deeds, V. Part 1 fol. 87. The town records of Kittery say that 13 Dec. 1669, there were "granted to Elizabeth Edwards five acres of upland joining to ye above said Christopher Beadle's land." This shows that Peter Staple married Elizabeth, widow of Stephen Edwards. Compare page 92. Various deeds indicate pretty plainly that she was a daughter of Robert Beadle. The same day that the town granted five acres to her there were granted: to Christopher Beadle ten acres of upland at ye head of ye lot that was his father's in ye Long Reach." The will of Peter Staple, dated 6 June 1718, was probated 7 April 1719. Made his will June 6, 1718, "being aged". —— Purchased land from from Abraham & Elizabeth Remich, Sep 1694. Early Maine Deeds and Wills. CD-ROM. Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2006. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009.) 4:263 [2]

  
  

• Sources

  [S17] MALU DEL MCDONALD, Ancestors of , McDonald, Patrick Joseph. [S95] Correspondence, Various, 215. [S12] Dover, New Hampshire, History of , Scales, John, (Higginson Book Co, Manchester, NH. 1923). [S48] Bradley - Collette - Gillespie - Opp Ancestry, Bradley, Hal. [S96] Find a Grave, database and images, 65345773. [S4] Maine and New Hampshire, Genealogical Dictionary of, Sybil Noyes, Charles Thornton Libby and Walter Goodwin Davis, (The Southworth-Anthoensen Press, Portland, ME. 1928-1939), 87, 216, 656. [S47] New England Marriages To 1700, Torrey, Clarence Almon. [S1] New England Historical and Genealogical Register, The, (NEHGS, Boston, MA), 86:101. [S128] Old Kittery and Her Families, Stackpole, Everett S., (Press of Lewiston Journal Company, Lewiston, ME. 1903), 752.